By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

They’re two of the top dogs in Class AAAA.

The Troup Tigers and Ridgeland Panthers went a combined 20-4 last season, and they both made it to the second round of the state playoffs.

Both teams are expected to field strong teams again this season, which makes next week’s showdown such a highly-anticipated one.

Troup, which thumped Northside 30-2 in last week’s preseason game, will open its season at Ridgeland on Aug. 24.

Ridgeland will begin its season against Calhoun today in the Corky Kell Classic in Rome.

That’s part of a challenging early-season schedule for Troup, which will also Columbus, Harris County and Callaway before opening Region 5-AAAA play.

“Hopefully, playing good competition will get us prepared for this tough region we’re in,” Troup head coach Tanner Glisson said. “We’re in probably one of the toughest regions in the state of Georgia. Us playing Ridgeland, and Harris County, Columbus, and Callaway, hopefully that’ll get us prepared. And Northwest was a playoff team, and we played them in our scrimmage.”

Troup, which returns the bulk of starters from last year’s 9-3 team, looked impressive against Northside.

The offense had everything working, with quarterback Kobe Hudson looking comfortable at his new position after playing wide receiver the past two years.

Hudson threw for more than 200 yards in the first half, and he completed two long passes to Jamari Thrash while throwing a touchdown pass to Mark-Anthony Dixon.

Trey Williams got it done on the ground with a pair of touchdown runs, and the offensive line was strong.

Defensively, Troup didn’t give up anything, with Northside’s only points coming on a first-half safety.

“The kids played well,” Glisson said. “We did exactly what you hope a veteran team will do. We were prepared in some areas to go play a regular game, and then some areas needed a lot of work, especially special teams. We’ve worked that hard all this week. So I think we’re close. And we’re healthy, so that’s good.”

Since there is no game to prepare for this week, Glisson will give the players some time off after going at it hard for a few days.

“It’s still early in the season,” Glisson said. “So we came out and got after each other pretty good Monday and Tuesday. And we saw pretty much what we needed to see as far as our physicality. Today we came in and cleaned it all up. We’ll give them Thursday and Friday off. We’ll hit the road scouting, and we’ll come back Sunday, and get ready for the season.”